Today in Technology History
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December 4
Our subject today is a pioneer of electromagnetism.
William Sturgeon was born in Whittington, England in 1783. As a young man he was an apprentice shoemaker; he later served in the army. Sturgeon took an interest in science -- particularly electricity -- and taught himself the basics. He began lecturing and experimenting, testing the theories and instruments that others had already developed.
Sturgeon's one truly great achievement came in the mid-1820s, when he made his first electromagnet. Scientists already knew that there was a connection between electricity and magnetism, and some experimenters had already built rudimentary electrical devices that behaved like magnets. Sturgeon's electromagnet went a step further. By wrapping a coiled electrical wire around a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron, Sturgeon created the first electromagnet capable of supporting more than its own weight. His electromagnet weighed about as much as an apple, but was capable of lifting nine pounds.
After Sturgeon's breakthrough, other researchers further refined the electromagnet, making possible most of the greatest electrical inventions of the nineteenth century -- including the telegraph and the multi-purpose electric motor.
Sturgeon himself built an electric motor in 1832. He later made a number of other inventions related to electricity, like the first commutator (used to control the direction of a current) and a new kind of galvanometer (used to measure current). Sturgeon also studied atmospheric electricity and published England's first journal about electricity, but none of these things paid well and he died without much money on December 4, 1850.
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